Furthur Missoula Montana, Adams Fieldhouse, September 27th, 2011

Flashback to Missoula Montana, Adams Fieldhouse, May 14th, 1974.

The Grateful Dead.

The "Wall of Sound"

What was sure to be a most memorable night for everyone attending turned into a nightmare. The Dead had brought along the "Wall of Sound", a special sound system designed specifically for that tour. It was definitely the premier system of its time. Thousands of Deadheads followed them from venue to venue, tickets at that time only costing $6 for up to a five-hour show. The set list of songs changed nightly.

At some point during the second set, Bobby Weir was hit in the head with a plastic Arber Day beer pitcher. The Dead left the stage for some time and then came back. Bobby vowed that they would never play in Missoula ever again.

The "DeadHeads" in so many respects don't exist anymore. The "Dead Family", a collective goup of people, 17 to their mid thirties, now follow Furthur around the United States. Their parents were the "DeadHeads".

And what attracts them? It is the sound of Furthur. It is Furthur's show. Tailored specifically for the LSD induced brain. A trip like you've never taken before.

During any first set you'll listen to Furthur play classic Dead tunes, but without any enhanced visual or sound experience. They sound awesome, but it's during the second (or third if there is three sets) Furthur bumps it up a notch with riveting broken keyboarding, echoing, lasers, colors, and anything else that they know will put you into an LSD trance. The bass lines that Phil Lesh plays reverberate through you like a heartbeat. They can even make it seem like time has stopped or spead up using both sound and lights.

The first song they played in the second set was Celebration and then directly onto Sugar Magnolia. The lasers were going now, and both of those songs ended with slight spacy riffs that started to put you into a trance.

The crowd lost it when He's Gone, the mantra to LSD tripping, started next. And this is the best rendition of He's Gone I've ever heard. I don't recall exactly when, but at some point the lighting made the band members eyes and mouths disappear (nothing but black holes) and their faces were white as skulls. Bob Weir looked like a dead pirate. Lights, lasers, sound, a satanic goats head appeared shimmering on the backdrop behind the band, two of the white triangles became glowing orange eyes, the bottom one his goatee, two on the sides his ears.

Bob Weir made a gesture with his left hand, making like he was ripping his face off.